November 30, 2009
TweetDeck v0.32 Out

With the new twitter features coming out lately, a new retweet and geolocation setup, twitter clients are starting to update. Tweetdeck is no exception, with a slick new 0.32 update that brings both of those, plus LinkedIn support and various other nice bits.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:21 PM
Iron Man 2's Teaser Poster

Thanks Aryk for this one.... First of all, I didn't know that there were now teaser posters, but here is the teaser poster for Iron Man 2. Love the first comment.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:34 PM
REST Vs SOAP In Comic Form

If you've ever been confused about some of the web service protocols and how they're different, you'll enjoy this Geek and Poke of Service Calling Made Easy defining the difference between REST and SOAP :)

Posted by Arcterex at 04:11 PM
Spectacular Light Painting Images

I normally don't like these "N Amazing Photos of [whatever]" type links, but DPS's link of 25 Spectacular Light Painting Images is pretty spectacular.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:05 PM
Navigon iPhone GPS Update

Navigon owners will be happy to hear that they have submitted a significant update to the app store. Most exciting is the google map search integration, allowing you to search with familiar google maps syntax "ie: library abbotsford bc" or "esso gas near 1st and main vancouver bc" (I assume anyway) instead of going through the slightly clunky address entry system they have now.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:00 PM
November 29, 2009
Romeo+Juliet Meet Canon and Nikon

Great video of Canon and Nikon, a modern day Romeo+Juliet.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:05 AM
RubyConf 2009 Videos

Those who didn't get to go to RubyConf will be happy to know that the RubyConf 2009 videos are out.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:34 AM
November 26, 2009
OS Xbox Pro Makes Me Feel Funny In The Hardware Places

I didn't know what to expect when I started the video called OS Xbox Pro is the hottest hackintosh ever, but after I have to admit that it made me feel kinda funny in my you know, hardware and apple places.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:41 PM
Swearing Perl Coders

This is an awesome statistic about swearing results by language on Google Code.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:15 AM
Mininova Goes Legit

Mininova, the bittorrent search engine which rose up and replaced suprnova.org Back In The Day, has limited its activities to Content Distribution service. IE: Gone legit.

In other news, mininova's traffic has disappeared and will be replaced by one of the other not-quite-so-legit bittorrent sites.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:12 AM
November 25, 2009
Chrome OS From a USB Key (Video)

Engadget has a video and article on Chrome OS like lightning from a USB key, with links to a torrent of the OS which can be set up to (I think) run from a USB key (with the link I mean, I know it can be set up to run off a USB key). Definitely a fun looking thing to try if you have a laptop sitting around that needs some use...

Ah, here's a site with the same download (though broken) and windows and linux install instructions.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:45 PM
Thunderbird 3.0 Release Candidate 1

Thunderbird 3.0 Release Candidate 1 is available for testing.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:19 PM
The Matrix's Bullet-Dodging Scene In Lego

Filed under Random Awesomeness is The Matrix's Bullet-Dodging Scene, Faithfully Recreated in Lego.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:50 AM
CSS3 Sideways Google

Only a truly evil person would set CSS3 Sideways Google as your friend's homepage. Really, don't do it. No matter how fun it looks.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:01 AM
The Only Acceptable "Edward" T-Shirt

Today's HijiNKS Ensue webcomic says it pretty well just what reception you should expect to any thing "Edward".

Posted by Arcterex at 08:55 AM
Please Do Stuff For Free (Funny)

Via reddit is a great post listing the back and forth emails between a designer and "client". Well, sort of client. Just please go and read it now. An excerpt :


If I did have a working time machine, the first thing I would do is go back four days and tell myself to read the warning on the hair removal cream packaging where it recommends not using on sensitive areas.

While it doesn't have anything to do with logos and pie charts, it's a nice sample of the humor in the emails. Just go and read it ok? :)

Posted by Arcterex at 08:43 AM
November 24, 2009
Hands-On Look at Office 2010

Lifehacker has the Hands-On Look at What's New in Office 2010 - Office 2010 for those who grabbed it from the Beta offer from a couple of days ago.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:00 PM
Chrome OS Security Overview

OSNews has a Chrome OS Security Overview.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:06 PM
When Cosplay Goes Wrong

No amount of wrong and fail can describe these horrible cosplay costumes.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:59 PM
Twilight: Three Wolf Moon

CollegeHumor again does a great job with their spoof of the new Twighlight movie with a fake trailer for Twilight: Three Wolf Moon. If you don't get the whole 3 Wolf Moon thing, check out the wikipedia page for the history of the meme.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:43 PM
1Password 3.0 Released

The Mac based password form saver/filling known as 1Password has released 1Password 3.0. If you own it already it should be a free upgrade (depending on when you purchased it of course). They are also have put their 1Password Pro iPhone app (link goes to iTunes store) on for the low low price of free.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:38 PM
"5 Star Wars Status Updates" @ CollegeHumor

Another win in the form of "5 Star Wars Status Updates" by Brian Murphy on CollegeHumor via @curtismchale.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:19 AM
Best Rick-Roll Ever

Ok, this is not only a lesson in why you never have a game delivered to your friend's house, but in how to keep a straight face successfully for more than 5 minutes while your buddy tries to figure out that he's being Rick-Rolled. Awesome.

Posted by Arcterex at 06:31 AM
November 23, 2009
Microsoft "Cashback" Gives Negative Cashback?

An interesting blog post entitled Negative Cashback from Bing Cashback, which illustrates how, allegedly, that using the "Bing Cashback" deal isn't that good a deal at all. Basically if a site sees you coming in from Bing with the cashback bonus, it gives you a raised price so the discount you get back actually is just a bit off an artificially raised price. Allegedly. Interesting to see if this gets any traction.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:42 PM
LHC Has First Results, Look Like Bad Drawings of a Mountain

The CERN Press Release has details of the first collisions at the LHC. Turns out it didn't create a black hole, destroy the world, galaxy, or universe, which is a good sign. Instead it did a bunch of.... uhm... sciency stuff that you should read the press release or the slashdot story for. Again, world not destroyed, no black holes either.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:50 PM
Thanksgiving Audiobook Giveaway

Found out on TWIT this week that Audible.com is having a thanksgiving giveaway of a free audiobook (no credit card required, but an account is needed) and the selection is pretty good, not just crap ones. Hey, free is free!

Posted by Arcterex at 12:34 PM
New Jailbroke Virus Reminder To Practice Safe Computing

Being that the New jailbroken iPhone worm is malicious, it's another reminder to people who have jailbroken phones that if you can ssh into the phone with username root and password of 'alpine', you really want to change the password, cause everyone knows what it is already.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:48 AM
New DROBO Units Announced

Data Robotics, Inc. just released two new Drobo units (and right after I bought myself a cheap-ass little NAS to backup my existing version 1 Drobo too!).

The first is the Drobo Elite (press release) for a pricey $3499 USD. They claim this unit has the fastest throughput of any Drobo unit, and is aimed clearly at the SAN market, and has been tested with VMware and has some better volume management technology. The other tick list items are:


  • No headache dual-disk redundancy
  • Multi-host connectivity with LUN affinity
  • Best-in-class performance
  • Up to 8 disks of instant expansion to 16TB and Beyond
  • Dual high-speed iSCSI interfaces
  • Virtues of Smart Volumes™ - supports up to 255 Smart Volumes
  • Simplify your VMware environment

Secondly is the Drobo S (press release) for $799 USD. This gives you what looks like the "normal" drobo unit, but with an extra drive tacked on (total of 5) and you can choose (and change on the fly) if you want single or double disk redundancy (ability to lose one or two drives).


  • Multiple interfaces: eSATA, FireWire 800, USB 2.0
  • Up to 5 drives of instant capacity expansion to 10TB and Beyond
  • Protection from up to two hard drive failures
  • BeyondRAID self-managing and self-healing technology
  • Works with Windows, Mac, or Linux

The "S" doesn't look all that bad, but not a huge significant jump over the previous Drobo, with the exception of the eStata interface, which will make things nice and fast for access. I'm not even going to look at the "Elite", but then again, it's not aimed at me as a user.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:23 AM
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Roger Ebert Review

I didn't expect it to be good, but the The Twilight Saga: New Moon review by Roger Ebert leaves no question as to the horribleness of this movie, and has some great lines in it.


The characters in this movie should be arrested for loitering with intent to moan. Never have teenagers been in greater need of a jump-start. Granted some of them are more than 100 years old, but still: their charisma is by Madame Tussaud.
[...]
sitting through this experience is like driving a tractor in low gear though a sullen sea of Brylcreem.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:06 AM
November 22, 2009
Thoughts on IE9

At PDC this year Microsoft revealed an early look at IE9, what it's targeting, and what the plans are to come. The theory is that IE9 will ship sometime next year, possibly corresponding with Windows 7 SP1.

Here are a couple of links about it first.


The latter is the more informative link.

Basically Microsoft is going to concentrate on web standards, javascript engine speed, and most interesting, rendering using the computers GPU instead of CPU to speed up rendering.

I'm glad they're finally going to concentrate on web standards as well. Please don't give me the "but HTML5 and CSS3 aren't finished standards and Microsoft will support them when they're ratified" argument. The other major browsers out there support these, get 100% on the ACID 3 test (well, Firefox actually only gets 93/100, still a far sight above the 33/100 that IE8 gets), and when people are writing web apps and cool tech with these standards in mind, IE users get left out in the cold, which isn't good for anyone.

Here's my main complaint with IE. Other than the security issue's it's had in the past, the UI is too slow. Not the rendering speed mind you, the UI. IE's rendering speed is, within reason, completely irrelevant. A 10th of a second difference in rendering msn.com (ugh, what a horrible page by the way), or apple.com or whatever, hell, a 5 second difference really doesn't matter all that much. But when it takes me the count of five to open a new tab in the last updated version of IE on my dual core Windows 7 system, compared to almost instantly in Chrome or Firefox, that's where the failure is. I wish I knew what it was, it's not that silly "automatically detect proxy settings" setting, but it's consistant across the different computers I use.

I think that if Microsoft has the resources to do magic stuff like rendering webpages in the Graphics Processing Unit of my computer, they sure as hell should be able to make the "new tab" function happen in a second or less.

I think that even the IE apologists will acknowledge that some of the UI in IE is sub-optimal compared to other browsers out there. Even if the rendering engines and security were apples-to-apples the same, the responsiveness of Google Chrome and Firefox win out.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:44 PM
Google Chrome OS Preview

Yea, it'll be a hot topic for a while to come.... but Paul Thurrott has a really great Google Chrome OS Preview over on the winsupersite.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:41 PM
November 20, 2009
Chrome OS Virtual Machine Download

That didn't take long did it? Lifehacker has the Chrome OS Virtual Machine Build links ready for download in both Virtual Box and VMware formats.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:05 AM
Jobs' Reply to Apple Developer

I'm of two minds about this story about Steve Jobs' Personal, Terse Reply to an Apple Developer. On one hand, big companies that create an eco-system around themselves of small developers creating great software, and then slapping them down for legal stuff, pisses me right off. Remember the debacle a few years ago with Mike Rowe vs. Microsoft? See it here if you don't.

On the other hand, Jobs' reply (which is both awesome and horrible IMHO), is true, and looking at the product page, it looks like his suggestion has already been done, and other than a no doubt feverish night rebuilding software and resource strings, no harm no foul. Still a crappy thing to do to a small company though.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:47 AM
Workaround Restores Mac OS X 10.6.2 Compatibility With Intel Atom Processors

You have to love the hacking/modding community. Seems they have a Workaround to Restores Mac OS X 10.6.2 Compatibility With Intel Atom Processors to get the functionality back that was removed in the last update.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:39 AM
November 19, 2009
Chrome OS Rundown

Engadget has a nice rundown of Chrome OS: Chrome OS is what I want, but not what I need.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:13 PM
Amazing Beards

Now this is an incredible beard, from a 1991 competition. You really want to wait for the second guy though.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:27 AM
Google Chrome OS Event Live Blogs and Streaming

The Google Chrome OS announcement is under an hour away,(10AM PST). Are you ready? Gearlog will Live Blog going, and Google will be streaming it (realplayer is an option? Really?!). Anyone else know of any sites covering it Apple Keynote style?

Anyway, looking forward to it, though I expect to be disappointed. Fingers crossed :)

Posted by Arcterex at 09:12 AM
November 18, 2009
Do Speedy Math in Your Head

Cool wired article on how to Do Speedy Math in Your Head. Reminds me a bit of the Mathamagician at TED a couple of years back.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:25 PM
Scroll Clock

Not that I'm advocating useless use of technology, but the Scroll Clock is pretty damn cool!

Posted by Arcterex at 04:07 PM
Leopard seal teaches photographer how to catch penguins

BoingBoing has a great story about a Leopard seal teaching photographer how to catch penguins, told by a National Geographic photographer who went to get some shots in the arctic.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:21 PM
Facebook and Twitter Clients

Scoble does a great interview with the guys from Seesmic on the perfect Facebook and Twitter client. Very interesting, cool to see @loic and the team.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:17 PM
Office 2010 Beta Now Available

No doubt part of the ongoing PDC show, Office 2010 Beta is now available.

If you do get it, just be careful about creating or editing documents in it, to make sure you don't end up with a bunch of word docs you can't open anymore because they were created with a beta or RC :)

Posted by Arcterex at 11:54 AM
Google Holding Chrome OS Event Thursday

I hear through the grapevine (read: RSS reader) that Google is Holding Chrome OS Event Thursday. Complete Overview And Launch Plans To Be Revealed. Guess we'll get to see what's going on there finally. I'm hoping it's not just a skinned linux running Chrome browser. Should be interesting though.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:34 AM
Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV)

Very cool video on the Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV) by the original artist. Pretty damn cool for something done in 1977, 32 years ago.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:28 AM
November 17, 2009
Fedora 12 Released

The Fedora 12 one page release notes for those wanting the latest goodness.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:38 AM
Seesmic Moving to Windows Platform

Speaking of interesting PDC news, it seems that Seesmic is Moving to Windows Platform. Seesmic is a twitter/facebook client similar to tweetdeck and they announced on the blog that they're moving to the Windows platform.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, are they abandoning the cross platform goodness of Adobe AIR (which incidentally announced AIR 2.0 beta this morning) and abandoning their Mac and Linux users? True, native apps are better than AIR/Java/etc apps, but both Seesmic and Tweetdeck were actually excellent apps for being non-native. Also I wonder what prompted the move. Being touted at PDC is a pretty big deal, I'm wondering if MS is looking to jump into the "social network" world and is going to use Seesmic as their champion?

Either way, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out, and if the move is beneficial to them.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:40 AM
Microsoft PDC 2009: Day 1

Paul has some details on the Microsoft PDC 2009: Day 1. There's also a live stream going if you want to watch live.

Having just tuned in, lets say the talk is very.... "business" oriented so far. IE: Probably best to just read the crib notes when it's over :)

Posted by Arcterex at 10:30 AM
KDE 4.4 Features and Screenshots

CIO.com.au has a feature on the as-yet-unreleased (but to be released in 2010) KDE 4.4. KDE took some critique when it released version 4.0 a few years back and basically called it a beta. Well, it's gotten much better since then, and the new 4.4 has some very interesting looking stuff coming to it.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:24 AM
Pirate Bay Shuts Down Tracker

Well, as predicted when The Pirate Bay was first "bought" by a gaming company a while back (and I only put that in "air quotes" because there seems to have been some dispute about stock fraud, etc in the deal) it's as good as dead. Slashdot notes that it's Tracker has shut down and switched To Distributed Hash Table.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:42 AM
Parsing Html The Cthulhu Way

In Coding Horror's Parsing Html The Cthulhu Way, you really get the idea that parsing HTML with regexes is a bad idea. From the article:


Every time you attempt to parse HTML with regular expressions, the unholy child weeps the blood of virgins, and Russian hackers pwn your webapp. Parsing HTML with regex summons tainted souls into the realm of the living.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:27 AM
Microsoft Stores Spontaneous Dancing

9-5 Mac brings us the video from the Microsoft Store and the attempts to do a spontaneous "improve anywhere" like dance in the middle of the store.


Remember yesterday I said that they were trying too hard with the Dolly Parton IE8 thing? I think I spoke too soon...

That said they should be commended for convincing (ordering?) their staff to do it and have them all (mostly) show enthusiasm, I can only assume that Bill Gates himself had their families tied up at gunpoint though (I keed, I keed)...

Probably the best part of the whole thing is the "more info" button on the youtube page, which is either a masterful stroke of sarcasm, an unabashed Microsoft shill, or someone completely deluded.

The Blackeyed Peas compel the employees at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, California to break out in dance, let their hair down and have some fun. [...]

Darren rightly corrected me that the term is "Astroturfing".

Posted by Arcterex at 08:36 AM
November 16, 2009
RubyMine Releases 2.0

For those of you who do your Ruby on Rails coding in an IDE, you'll be no doubt excited that JetBrains RubyMine is 2.0. Rubymine is a very cool app which I've been experimenting with for some of my projects. Very reasonably priced, and very complete if you read through the docs and check out the screencasts.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:22 PM
Evernote Gets $10m Investment

My favorite cross platform note taking system, Evernote, just announced that they raised $10 million in investment. Congrats to the guys at Evernote! Now you can afford to hire me! :)

Posted by Arcterex at 03:20 PM
Dolly Parton endorses IE 8

9-5 Mac presented Dolly Parton endorsing IE 8 without comment. I however, will comment, and say that Microsoft really seems to mis-understand their market (or needs to have a serious talk with their marketing company) if they think that this is the sort of thing that doesn't make them look like fools.

(Note: I have no problem with Dolly Parton or her music).

Posted by Arcterex at 01:19 PM
R2-D2 Discovered In Star Trek Movie

Gizmodo, and ILM, have confirmed that R2-D2 has been Discovered In Star Trek. With high rez screen capture goodness.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:22 AM
November 13, 2009
New 3D Buildings in Spain in Google Earth

Via The Google Earth Blog comes news that Valencia, Spain has gotten a 3D city makeover. Gotta say when these do a 3D city they do it well :)

Posted by Arcterex at 03:32 PM
Star Wars: The Old Republic Footage

Shacknews has a ton of
Star Wars: The Old Republic Footage
showing off combat from the upcoming MMORPG.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:42 PM
Hackers Give Palm Treo 650 an Android Brain

Holy cool, check out this feat of hax0r ability in a video of a Palm Treo 650 with an Android brain . Thanks Aryk.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:16 PM
Balancing Rocks

Cool video about Bill Dan Balancing Rocks. Pics in his flickr stream as well.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:58 PM
Visual Tour of GNOME 3 Shell (in Ubuntu 9.10)

Here's a quick Visual Tour of GNOME 3 Shell (in Ubuntu 9.10) and how to install it, all via OSNews.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:18 AM
ioSafe Torture Test and Recovery Demo

Great video demo of the ioSafe Torture Test and Recovery. The ioSafe is a 2Tb water and heat proof hard drive enclosure. More info here. Even if you don't care about the unit, there's flames and destruction involved!

Posted by Arcterex at 09:40 AM
November 12, 2009
Another Set of Mac Apps Cheap: The Mac Sale

Similar to MacHeist, The Mac Sale is giving you a bunch of mac apps for one low low price.

Speaking of MacHeist, I see that they didn't make their 500,000 users to unlock the last app, Mariner Write. Sad, but honestly the set of apps in their NanoBundle weren't all that impressive (IMHO).

Posted by Arcterex at 02:05 PM
Pigeon: Impossible

Fantastic looking and funny animated short called Pigeon: Impossible, 5 years in the making.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:41 PM
Kick-Ass : Teaser Trailer

I feel bad for not posting this yet. The comic "Kick-Ass" sucked me right in, and I'm not a comic guy at all, so I'm really excited to see that the Kick-Ass Teaser Trailer looks like it'll live up to the source material, and by all accounts, the movie doesn't compromise on the violence, swearing, and bloodshed. Also check out the movie poster.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:20 PM
Help-Portrait Photography Project

I've seen a few of these types of projects lately. Check out Help-Portrait... there are a couple of videos on there that are pretty powerful, make me want to go and grab my gear.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:12 PM
Win $100,000 for 140 Seconds of Film

I don't normally put up stuff about contests here, but hey, Chase Jarvis is the man when it comes to great photography and he blogged about how you can get $100,000 in 140 Seconds through a Nikon sponsored contest showing your day, through your lens (literally and figuratively) in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Pretty cool idea. Sample videos from both him and Rainn Wilson (from The Office) on the link.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:35 PM
Researchers Take Down a Spam Botnet

Slashdot story about how Researchers Take Down a Spam Botnet. Not saying it's related, but my rejected spam went from 22% in yesterday's report to 31% in today's report.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:00 PM
GNOME 3.0 Pushed Back Six Months

Via OSNews I found that GNOME 3.0 is Pushed Back Six Months. Sucks I guess cause I want to see what they've got going, but I want it to not be crashy :)

Posted by Arcterex at 11:30 AM
Fix for Netbook Hackintoshes in the Works

Run a netbook hackintosh? Upgrade to the latest OS 10.6.2? Did you get it right in the jibbly bits from Apple and their removal of Atom processor support? If so, you'll be happy to know that a Fix for Netbook Hackintoshes is in the Works, and a Temporary Fix is Already Available.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:04 AM
Not Always Right - Faux-bi-Wan Kenobi

Some of the stuff on Not Always Right is kinda meh, but the Faux-bi-Wan Kenobi story had me LOL at work this morning.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:29 AM
Superhero Based Breakup Cards

If you need a little room in your relationship, you can't go wrong with these superhero themed breakup cards. No really, what could possibly go wrong?

Posted by Arcterex at 08:24 AM
November 11, 2009
Remembrance Day

No matter where you are or what you are up to today, hopefully you'll have time to sit back and give thanks to those who gave their lives to keep the current freedom that we enjoy in the world today. For me it was my grandfathers, from different sides of World War II, living in completely different worlds, but both of whom fought in their own way. One I ended up knowing, one I only heard about in stories from my dad. Peter, I wish I could have met you to thank you.

And of course, in UFies.org semi-tradition.


In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:14 AM
November 10, 2009
The Onion on The Next Modern Warfare Game

The Onion has a great and hilarious news piece on how the next Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks etc. Looking forward to getting my hands on the PC version of this, the first Modern Warfare last year blew my mind.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:16 PM
@Stuff My Dad Says Gets SitCom Deal?

Definitely a sign of the world we live in, the twitter account @shitmydadsays has been picked up as a sitcom. I'm not sure if this is really that outside of the standard sitcom formula of "family with crank old man dad character", but the fact they attribute something to twitter is interesting.

Course, it could also be the whole thing is a scam and the twitter account was setup when the show was quietly created. The account has only been active since August 3rd, and somehow 73 tweets in three months isn't something that I could see a high powered TV exec picking up, but hey, stranger things have happened.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:14 PM
Amazing Dogfight Demo From nVidia

InstinctTech DogFighter CudaDemo is a great look at the latest in GPU and video card technology, with the ability to have 4000+ planes (plus hit detection and flocking behaviors) on screen at the same time. Lies, damn lies and tech demos and all that, still pretty impressive though!

Posted by Arcterex at 01:12 PM
November 09, 2009
Vancouver: Skytrain Anagram Amusement

This skytrain and transit map of Vancouver with station names changed to anagrams is epically awesome!

Posted by Arcterex at 03:25 PM
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.2

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.2, fixing the guest account bug as well as as a bunch of other issues and fixes. Wonder if the "four finger swipe gesture" issue is the oddness I've found with expose.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:32 PM
Scoble on the Droid

Robert Scoble's latest blog post, The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone is a good read and an interesting look at why specs don't always define what makes or doesn't make a good product. Related: Droid vs iPhone camera.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:37 PM
MythTV .22 Released

After a long time in Beta, MythTV version 0.22 is now available. I presume it's only a matter of time before MythBuntu and friends update to the latest version.

Personally my Mythtv is working great, and I'm terrified to touch it :)

Posted by Arcterex at 12:35 PM
Big Cat Pets

Some awesome videos and pictures of Kevin Richardson and his Lions. They really act with their human the same way my cats act with me, just that they are a weeeee bit bigger. Course, I still wouldn't be surprised if some day you hear that this guy mysteriously disappeared and only a toe was ever found. Still, immensely cute :)

Posted by Arcterex at 09:33 AM
Man Gets "Planet Sized Brass Balls" Award For Punching Shark To Escape

Seriously, how does this guy walk with the huge brass clankers he must have to have punched his way out of shark attack? I love the reddit article title of Man escapes shark attack by being fucking awesome. Too true.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:17 AM
November 06, 2009
Thurrott Reviews Windows Mobile 6.5

Paul Thurrot reviews Windows Mobile 6.5. Given that the title of the review is "the sky is falling" I'm not all that hopeful :)

Posted by Arcterex at 04:13 PM
Motorola DROID: Stealth commercial

Droid is getting lukewarm to warm reception and reviews from what I've heard, but outside of that, this Motorola DROID: Stealth commercial is pretty damn cool.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:12 PM
Early Buzz: Is Kick-Ass The Best Superhero Movie Ever Made? Trailer Coming Soon | /Film

Slashfilm got their paws on some early reviews of the Kick Ass movie.


I'm sure you'll be getting lots of emails on the subject as Lionsgate is cranking out Screenings like gang busters but I just came from one and hot damn, what a flick. I never read the comic but this movie was a great fun incredibly violent ride.

If you're a geek and haven't heard about the Kick-Ass movie yet, this is something to keep on your radar. If you haven't read the Kick-Ass comic yet, do. There are only 7 issues out so far, and speaking as someone who is not a comic book guy at all, I read and consumed the first 6 like a madman, and will be grabbing the 7th today.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:48 AM
Citrus Soldier - Webcomic Based on Flickr

Citrus Soldier is a web comic based on random photos from Flickr. Pretty good stuff.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:50 AM
Funny Road Sign

Oh I'm sure it's photoshoped or fake, but damn, this Highway Sign is damn funny. I wonder if I'd have the balls to do something like that if I were fired from a similar situation?

Posted by Arcterex at 08:18 AM
November 05, 2009
Firefox 3.5.5 Update Fixes Critical Security Bug

Note Firefox users, while you may get to play with the latest and greatest JavaScript and CSS toys, you also get some security issues. Luckily, the Firefox 3.5.5 Update Fixes Critical Security Bug, so you can breath that little bite easier.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:42 PM
MacHeist nanoBundle Announced

The MacHeist nanoBundle is in the process of a live announcement. The following apps are part of this years MacHeist:

Sadly I must say that other than the cool live announcement, the software is fairly "meh" to me, as I either have no use for the software or already use something equal or better.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:30 PM
Crazy Man Dresses up as Giant Bat

So his plan is like this... First I dress up like a bat, than I scare the hell out of people. I'm not sure if this is brilliant or insane. Great video though.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:15 PM
The Happiest Polar Bear You Ever Will See

When you give the Perfect gift for one polar bear - two tons of ice cubes covered in maple syrup, you get a damn happy polar bear!

Posted by Arcterex at 11:43 AM
100 Different Evernote Uses

Great list of 100 Different Evernote Uses. I've been a user/lover of Evernote for a while now, and some of these are pretty awesome.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:47 AM
Is Karmic Ubuntu's Vista?

Seems not everyone is happy with the latest Ubuntu release Karmic Koala, asking Is Karmic Ubuntu's Vista?

Personally I've had no issues with it, so far anyway. There are a couple of minor issues, neither of which I don't think is related to the distro. One is my hard drive seems to be having some errors, but smartctl says there are none, and the other was it took some magic when I swapped video cards, trading an nVidia for an ATI. I documented how to do this here though.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:23 AM
Google Dashboard Lets You Control What They Know About You

The Google Blog noted today their release of a Dashboard! From their entry:

In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings.

Seems to work nicely, and nice to have the control over what they have on you. Glad they are answering some of the privacy concerns that have been raised lately of "google knows too much about me".

Posted by Arcterex at 09:56 AM
Big imagery releases for Google Earth and Bing Maps

Big imagery releases for Google Earth and Bing Maps, with the ones hitting close to home being the Vancouver area in preparation no doubt for the Olympics here in under 100 days.

Sadly Google still hasn't got up to date imager or maps for the new Golden Ears Bridge, even though you can see in Street View that the street view car clearly drove over it (hit your up arrow twice and see how the street view jumps to the top of the bridge and then back down). Bing maps at least have half the bridge....

Posted by Arcterex at 09:24 AM
Bikini Leia and Stunt Double Suntanning

This picture of Bikini Leia and stunt double catch some rays just blew my freakin' mind. My love for Carrie Fisher still remains.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:25 AM
November 04, 2009
Gnome 3.0 To Be Delayed Until September 2010?

OMG actual Linux news? From OMG Ubuntu, an excellent site I discovered recently, it sounds like Gnome 3.0 Will Be Delayed Until September 2010 simply because of the state of the project (beta quality) and the GNOME release timetable. Personally I'd rather wait and get something good instead of having something unstable. Course, I'd also like to have the new GNOME 3.0 shell to play with, cause it looks like this'll make GNOME take a revolutionary step forward instead of the evolutionary ones that the last few 2.x releases have been.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:25 PM
On Successfully Launching a Web Design Startup on No Budget

Cool article on how to Successfully Launch a Web Design Startup with Social Media and No Budget. Including what's needed, social media, etc. Via @johnkoetsier.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:38 PM
Droid Camera vs. iPhone

Andy Ihnatko has a great set of images comparing Droid Camera vs. iPhone with surprising results. Remember of course that more megapixels doesn't mean a better image all the time.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:58 PM
DIY Wrist Mounted Flame Thrower

OMG this is the most awesome thing ever!

Seriously, anything that has "DIY" and "flame thrower" in the title, how can you resist!? Via forgetfoo.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:49 PM
Parallels 5 Brings Windows 7 Aero Integration

Parallels joins the VMware crowd in Integrating Windows 7 with Aero Support into the VMs under Mac.

Posted by Arcterex at 12:26 PM
Mockingbird Web Layout Tool

Mockingbird is a cool new online tool for mocking up websites. Even better, it's written in pure HTML/JS, no flash to be found. Very sexy tool!

Posted by Arcterex at 11:34 AM
SkyDrive Explorer For SkyDrive Access

SkyDrive Explorer is in Beta and will let you access your 25G of SkyDrive storage from the explorer. There are some limitations, but it's still a cool idea.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:01 AM
Windows 7 Upgrade Media

Paul Thurrott has (maybe) the final word about Windows 7 Upgrade Media after talking with Microsoft.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:59 AM
November 03, 2009
80 percent of viruses love Windows 7

Davey Winder says that 80 percent of viruses love Windows 7, and that a Windows 7 machine without AV software on it gobbled up viruses like a fat kid gobbles up candy on Halloween. Now this was a bit of an unfair test, not installing AV software, but still, the "we're making Windows more secure" mantra has been going at MS for a while now, you'd think that this would be better.

As a note, here is the article that RoundTop mentioned.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:02 PM
Seesmic Desktop Adds Twitter Lists

The Seesmic twitter client has added support for userlists. Works pretty nicely, and looks good. Tweetdeck is still my desktop app of choice, but hey, different strokes for different folks.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:39 AM
New iPhone Jailbreak/Unlock

The big issue with getting a jailbroken/unlocked iPhone recently is that all the carrier unlocks weren't working for phones with firmware 3.1 on it, as that updated the baseband firmware to such a state that the normal unlock (different than the Jailbreak) couldn't unlock it. Well, turns out today is a sn0wday, with the jailbrak and unlock combined in once nice package. Link has details, also check out http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com for the announcement and features.

Yay freedom!

Posted by Arcterex at 09:22 AM
Weezer Snuggie Infomercial Promo For New Album

After watching the Weezer Snuggie Infomercial Promo For New Album is it wrong that I think this might be a good xmas gift for my non-heat-retaining wife? I don't really even care about weezer's music....

Posted by Arcterex at 09:15 AM
Why do we have an IMG element?

Dive Into Mark has a great look at Why do we have an IMG element? and traces its origins back to the original proposal, manages to fit in the history of more than a couple of browsers, and ties it all up nicely with a look at the state of the HTTP/HTML/Browser world today.


Some of the operating systems from 1993 still exist, but none of them are relevant to the modern web. Most people today who "experience" the web do so on a PC running Windows 2000 or later, a Mac running Mac OS X, a PC running some flavor of Linux, or a handheld device like an iPhone. In 1993, Windows was at version 3.1 (and competing with OS/2), Macs were running System 7, and Linux was distributed via Usenet. (Want to have some fun? Find a graybeard and whisper "Trumpet Winsock" or "MacPPP.")

As a note, I shudder thinking about Trumpet Winsock..... not sure if those are shudders of reminiscing joy, or repressed fear. Definitely makes me glad things have moved on!

Great stuff Mark!

Posted by Arcterex at 09:07 AM
Stack Overflow Launches Careers

Coding Horror notes that Stack Overflow Careers: Amplifying Your Awesome has launched. This is a free CV hosting system which builds on their peer reputation system. Very cool idea.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:54 AM
November 02, 2009
Google Chrome Bookmark Sync Updated

Google Chrome's Beta channel has updated with Bookmark sync and more speed with the latest 4.x release. Good stuff. If you run the Dev channel you'll have this already.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:47 PM
Nikon iPhone App

Learn And Explore for the iPhone from Nikon, has become available in the US app store. Nice little app for my Nikon shooting friends.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:53 PM
How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace

Cool lifehacker guide on How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace. Perfect for all your secret-gift-buying needs! ;)

Posted by Arcterex at 03:46 PM
The Complete Guide to Google Wave eBook

The awesome Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame has created The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave and put up a free preview of the eBook online.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:10 PM
Eye Tracking Studies and Web Design

John Koetsier over at Sparkplug9 points to a few tips from 3 eye tracking studies and their influence on web design. Some really simple stuff too, like making forms vertical, not horizontal.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:22 PM
A Bit of Backpedaling and an Apology from Microsoft

There's been a bit of a saga going on with Paul Thurrott and Microsoft over Windows 7. The short story goes something like this:


  • Microsoft has great deal on Windows 7 Upgrades
  • Microsoft has no information about if you can do a "clean install" with Windows 7 upgrade media.
  • Around Windows 7 launch day, there's still no "official" information, and Paul publishes a post on how to install and activate your Windows 7 on a clean install using the upgrade media.
  • A Microsofty puts up a blog post basically accusing Paul of advocating and enabling piracy

A lot of this was gone over in this week's Windows Weekly podcast.

Anyway, the latest bit of this saga is there has been a bit of backpedaling and an apology from Microsoft, at least kinda. Paul's post goes over the high points from it.

End result is that most of the time, DRM and anti-piracy measures will affect more paying customers than it will pirates. Pirates have had a fully activated, WGA passing Windows 7 ISO since before the release date, and if you want pretty much any song by any band in lossless quality it's no more than a few clicks away, and pirates will pretty much never butt up against copy protected music, game ISO DRM, or Windows Genuine Advantage-esque protection. Sadly now that they've started using these, it'll be really hard to pull them out and save face, so now it's just another software arms race of corporations vs crackers.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:06 PM
New Site: The Internet Movie Firearms Database

Based on the site name, the purpose of the internet movie firearms database should be pretty obvious. Wish I'd thought of it.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:02 PM
Barney Bentall Live at Tractorgrease Studios

Great video posted by my buddy @jimshaggy of Barney Bentall Live at Tractorgrease. Tractorgrease (@tractorgrease) is a multimedia studio in Chilliwack, BC, that hosts artists, records, etc. Great song and a nice video!

Posted by Arcterex at 10:21 AM
Morning Cat Funny Video

Oh come on, it's Monday, and it's a funny video!

Posted by Arcterex at 10:06 AM
Updated iPhone 3G, 3GS Canadian Pricing

TUAW has links for the Updated iPhone 3G, 3GS pricing and availability for Canada just announced from Telus and Bell. Rogers will be responding as well soon.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:22 AM